Chairman Mukesh Ambani welcomes demonetisation.

A Reliance employee demonstrates Jio LYF phone at their headquarters on the outskirts of Mumbai, India, June 1, 2016. Picture taken June 1, 2016. REUTERS/Clara Ferreira Marques

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Reliance Chairman Mukesh Ambani announced that Reliance Jio will be deploying Aadhar card based mircro-ATMs that would make withdrawing cash easier for people. Jio will tie up with merchants to install the Micro ATM machines, which will be integrated with Jio Money.

Ambani hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decision to demonetise ₹500 and ₹1,000 currency notes, saying that the move will help the shift to a digital economy.

"Our Prime Minister has given the strongest possible push to the growth of a digitally enabled, optimal cash economy in India," Ambani said in a live YouTube feed. "This decision is an important step in his ongoing efforts to change the mindset of the people of India. Digitally-enabling transactions will help to create a fair, just, transparent and strong India and Indian economy."

After the government's 8 November announcement, the company is pushing the Jio Money app, an online wallet like Paytm or Mobikwik. Jio has begun signing up with local merchants, to enable consumers to pay through their smartphones cashlessly.

Reliance Jio is aiming to reach a figure of 10 million merchants in 17,000 villages and towns across India. India's biggest wallet company, Paytm, has a tie-up with around 850,000 merchants as of now.

"Customers use their JioMoney Wallets to pay merchants from their bank accounts, and merchants can use the JIOMONEY Merchant App to accept these payments directly into their bank accounts," Ambani said. "Using the JioMoney Merchant App, merchants can also make supplier payments,transfer money between his bank account and use digital petty cash."

Reliance Jio also announced today that it is extending its free data offer until March 2017 in a new package, called 'Happy new year offer'.